Video: SEIU activists try to set ObamaCare opponents straight

posted at 2:55 pm on August 7, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

After the President himself talked about getting in people’s faces when they oppose his policies and setting up snitch lines at the White House, the only shocker in this video is that it took so long for townhalls to turn violent. The SEIU showed up in t-shirted uniform to a townhall meeting for Rep. Russ Carnahan in St. Louis, apparently intent on demonstrating union tactics in organizing elections if Congress passes Card Check. The video below shows the immediate aftermath of the attack, including the arrest of one of the SEIU’s thugs:

His excuse? After being berated by a member of the crowd for attacking a black conservative for opposing ObamaCare, the union thug replied, “He attacked America!” The same goon made a threatening motion to the vocal witness, but perhaps thought better of it when he saw the camera. Police eventually responded and started arresting a number of people, including one reporter on the scene:

Kenneth Gladney, a 38-year-old conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with “Don’t tread on me” printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room of the St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was waiting to be treated for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face that he suffered in the attack. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack started.

“It just seems there’s no freedom of speech without being attacked,” he said.

Pay attention, America. This is a glimpse into the next three years of the Obama administration, at least using the same logic by which the Left accuses health-care reform opponents of “astroturfing”. If its policies get organized opposition, especially at events designed to allow for public debate, purple-shirted thugs will appear to crack heads and scare off the opposition.

And if nothing else, it’s a great look at how the unions will act once the secret ballot gets eliminated from organizing elections.

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